Woman speaks out after estranged husband 'drugged her food with dog medicine'

A mother-of-two has spoken out about the "sinister" campaign her estranged husband waged against her after she tried to end their relationship, claiming it included drugging her food with dog medicine and sleeping tablets.

Joanne Ferneyhough, 42, said her husband Thomas Ferneyhough, 37, started tormenting her after she tried to end their relationship in September 2017 following months of "possessive" behaviour after they wed in June that year.

As they tried to reconcile, she said he started secretly slipping a concoction of what she thinks was sleeping tablets and dog medicine into her food and cups of tea.

The 42-year-old put an unusual taste in her tea down to "off" milk and claimed Ferneyhough even once shook her awake, thinking she was dead.

He also hacked her Facebook and sent messages to friends, urinated on her car, and contacted her colleagues telling them she had cheated on him.

Thomas Ferneyhough, of Tixall Road, Great Haywood, Stafford, has now been jailed for 30 months in prison after admitting common assault, threatening to destroy property, engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour, and harassment.

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Despite suffering from anxiety following the ordeal, Joanne Ferneyhough said she had now managed to move on and wanted to share her story to help other people.

She said: "You never imagine the person you love would be capable of such awful things - like drugging you. He once handed me a cup of tea and jokingly said, 'I could have put anything in that'.

"I didn’t think anything of it at the time - I never once thought he was slipping things into my drinks.

"I’ve really struggled after the whole ordeal, but I’m glad he’s finally out of my life."

The couple first met on a dating app in 2014 and married three years later in June 2017.

But Ferneyhough said within months of getting married, she noticed a "possessive" side to her new husband.

"The day after our wedding day he said, ‘I own you now’,' she said. "Things continued to go downhill from there. He also had a bad temper – slamming doors and punching holes in them."

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She tried to end their relationship in September 2017, but Ferneyhough continued to contact her, turning up at her work, slashing her tyres, urinated on her car, and spread rumours about an affair around her office.

She managed to obtain a restraining order but Ferneyhough breached it by continuing to message her and in October 2017 he was convicted for harassment and jailed for 10 weeks.

When he was released he begged for her back and she decided to give their relationship another chance but she claims he then started drugging her food and tea with sleeping pills and medicine she believes was meant for their eight-year-old pug Bella.

She said: "In August 2021, I started feeling really ill all of a sudden. I even went to the GP because I was oversleeping and very lethargic all the time.

"The cup of teas tasted weird, but I always put it down to the milk being off."

She said she also noticed his temper returning, and on one occasion he kicked a cupboard while she was on a virtual meeting, calling her a "pathetic b****", while another time he threw a bacon roll at the wall.

She threw him out in December 2021, prompting him to threaten to burn the house down while continuing to harass her via messages, including audio clips threatening to kill himself in January.

After a police search, he was found in a field and Joanne ended things for good.

When Ferneyhough was sentenced, his defence barrister said he did "latch on to women", adding: "Once he is a relationship it is to the point where he becomes obsessed with them. He didn't want to lose her, but his actions drove her away and made it worse."

Joanne said she was sharing her experience in the hope it would help other women, saying: "It's so hard to let someone go when you want to do is help them.

"But the best thing you can do is get some help and speak out before things escalate.

"It's really shaken my trust in men and having a relationship is the furthest thing from my mind. I was very lucky something worse didn't happen.

"It's been a really difficult time but I'm getting to a place where I can look after myself and move on with my life."